It has succeeded but it has also failed. Using a shared database for many different functions/applications can be a disaster that eventually seizes up. Everyone is afraid to change the data structures because they don't know what it will break. It's a huge piece of global state with no isolation. Enter encapsulation and service orientation and bounded contexts.

So the parent is correct. It's not enough to say data orientation is a good thing. It needs to be compared with previous approaches (encapsulation) and then explain what the tradeoffs are.